The Left Hates Corporate Free Speech ... Sometimes

The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission has produced a firestorm of upset, from Obama's lamentable (and false) State of the Union comments to a number of furious emails I have received from liberals horrified that, you know, even corporations have First Amendment protection.

I recognize that there are potential negatives from corporate money flowing into the political arena -- just like when labor unions, trade associations, and obscenely rich leftists like George Soros decide to influence the political process. But the danger isn’t what you might think. The money is not dangerous because special interests are directly buying votes. The real danger is that candidates who agree with the special interests (and therefore get contributions from them) have so much more money to spend than the candidates who might actually be looking out for the public good.

This last term, I taught state and local government at a local technical college. When trying to make this point, I gave my students a hypothetical race between three candidates trying to win a party primary:

Mr. Smith supports open borders and no laws prohibiting illegal aliens from working;

Mr. Jones supports our current policy of minimal enforcement of immigration laws, and no serious effort at stopping illegal aliens from working;

“So, who are you going to vote for?” Every single student in the class -- without exception -- said: “Mr. Green.”

I had to break the bad news to them:

No, you are going to vote for Mr. Smith or Mr. Jones. Mr. Smith will raise several million dollars to run for Congress, hundreds of thousands from corporations that like cheap labor and ethnic identity groups who want more power. Mr. Jones will raise a similar amount, and from similar interest groups. Mr. Green will raise $5,000, mostly out of his own pocket and from a few friends. And you won’t see any television ads from Mr. Green.

Maybe, just maybe, a flyer from Green’s campaign will show up in your mailbox. And you will completely miss Mr. Green’s message.

That’s why corporate spending -- and labor union spending, and trade group spending, and all the other special groups spending money on politics -- is a bad thing for America.

That said, here’s the harsh truth: somecorporations have enormous free speech rights to influence the political process, and the same people furiously angry about Citizens United don’t want that to change.